Fossilized nest of 15 baby dinosaurs found in Mongolia

David Fastovsky, who described the fossilized nest in a journal article this month, calls Protoceratops “a fascinating and unexpected mass of contradictions.”

Earlier this month (November 6, 2011), a University of Rhode Island (URI) paleontologist described a nest containing the fossilized remains of 15 juvenile Protoceratops andrewsi dinosaurs from Mongolia in the Journal of Paleontology. It’s the first nest of this genus ever found and the first indication that Protoceratops juveniles remained in the nest for an extended period.

David Fastovsky, URI professor of geosciences who made the discovery, said:

Finding juveniles at a nest is a relatively uncommon occurrence, and I cannot think of another dinosaur specimen that preserves 15 juveniles at its nest in this way.

The fossilised remains of 15 protoceratops were uncovered in a 70-million-year-old nest in Mongolia. Image Credit: David Fastovsky et al.

He said this nest of fossilized dinosaurs provides new information about postnatal development and parental care among dinosaur species. He said the bowl-shaped nest measures 2.3 feet (.7 meters) in diameter and was found in the Djadochta Formation at Tugrikinshire (or Tugrikin-Shireh), Mongolia.

The analysis of the 70-million-year-old nest by Fastovsky and his colleagues found that all 15 dinosaurs – at least 10 of which are complete specimens – were about the same size and had achieved the same state of growth and development, suggesting they represent a single clutch from a single mother. The discovery also indicates that the young dinosaurs remained in the nest through the early stages of postnatal development and were cared for by their parents.

Protoceratops grew to about 6 feet (3 meters) long and may have taken as long as 10 years to reach full size. Those Fastovsky found in the nest were likely less than one year old when they died. Fastovsky said:

Fastovsky calls Protoceratops “a fascinating and unexpected mass of contradictions.” It is a herbivore that lived in a sand sea much like the Sahara Desert. It likely bestowed significant parental care on a relatively large number of offspring, perhaps because it lived where mortality was quite high.

A wide variety of theropod dinosaurs lived in Mongolia at the time, some of which, including the notorious Velociraptor, probably ate young Protoceratops. Fastovsky said:

Juvenile Protoceratops mortality may have been rather high, not only from predation but from a potentially stressful environment, and large clutches may have been a way of ensuring survival of the animals in that setting. Nonetheless, if preservation is any indicator of abundance in life, then during the time represented by the Djadochta Formation, Protoceratops were a very common feature of Mongolian Late Cretaceous desert landscapes.

Bottom line: David Fastovsky, a University of Rhode Island professor of geosciences, found a nest containing the fossilized remains of 15 juvenile Protoceratops andrewsi dinosaurs in Mongolia. It’s the first nest of this genus ever found and the first indication that Protoceratops juveniles remained in the nest for an extended period. He published his results in the Journal of Paleontology on November 6, 2011.